The Lost Daughter is a 2021 psychological drama film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal (in her feature directorial debut), based on the 2006 novel by Elena Ferrante. The film stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Domińczyk, Jack Farthing, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ed Harris. Colman also served as an executive producer.
| The Lost Daughter | |
|---|---|
 Promotional release poster | |
| Directed by | Maggie Gyllenhaal |
| Written by | Maggie Gyllenhaal |
| Based on | The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Hélène Louvart |
| Edited by | Affonso Gonçalves[1] |
| Music by | Dickon Hinchliffe[2] |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 121 minutes[4] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million[5] |
| Box office | $622,635[6] |
The Lost Daughter had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2021, where Gyllenhaal won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay,[7] and began a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 17, 2021, prior to streaming on December 31, 2021, by Netflix. The film was acclaimed by critics, and at the 94th Academy Awards received three nominations: Best Actress (Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Buckley), and Best Adapted Screenplay.[8]
Plot
editWhile on holiday in Greece, middle-aged university professor and noted translator, Leda Caruso, meets Nina, a young mother, after Nina's three-year-old daughter Elena goes momentarily missing on the beach. Leda finds Elena and returns her to Nina, who expresses her growing exhaustion and unhappiness.
Elena is upset after she loses her favorite doll, which Leda has secretly taken. In flashbacks, it's shown that Leda also struggled with being a young mother to her two daughters, Bianca and Martha, often losing her patience and becoming withdrawn from her family.
One evening, Leda has dinner with Lyle, her holiday apartment's caretaker, who sees that she has the doll but doesn't comment on it, nor does he tell Nina. Leda later discovers Nina is having an affair with Will, who works at the beach bar, and Nina explains that her husband Toni is very controlling. The search for Elena's doll continues, with Nina even putting up flyers offering a reward for its return.
At a market, Leda buys Nina a hatpin to help hold her sunhat in place. When Nina asks Leda about her daughters, Leda becomes emotional; she reveals that she had abandoned them for three years after she became too overwhelmed, leaving them with her now ex-husband, during which time she had an affair with a fellow professor. She admits that being away from her daughters felt "amazing", and she only went back to them when she genuinely missed them. Nina learns that Leda knows about her and Will, and he later asks Leda if they can borrow her apartment to have sex.
The next day when Nina arrives at Leda's to get the apartment keys, Leda admits to being a selfish and "unnatural" mother and warns that Nina's depression will never go. She then gives Nina Elena's doll, confessing that she took it and that she was "just playing". Nina reacts angrily by stabbing Leda in the stomach with the hatpin before leaving. That night, Leda packs her bags and leaves the resort, but drives her car off the road due to her injuries; she soon collapses on the shoreline.
The next morning, Leda awakens and calls Bianca, who happens to be with Martha. They express their relief to hear from their mother, from whom they had not heard in several days. Leda says she is fine and then looks down to discover an orange in her hands; she peels the orange skin off "like a snake", the way she had done for her daughters when they were little.
Cast
edit- Olivia Colman as Leda Caruso
- Jessie Buckley as young Leda
- Dakota Johnson as Nina
- Ed Harris as Lyle
- Dagmara Domińczyk as Callisto "Callie"
- Paul Mescal as Will
- Robyn Elwell as Bianca
- Ellie James as older Bianca (voice)
- Ellie Blake as Martha
- Isabelle Della-Porta as older Martha (voice)
- Peter Sarsgaard as Professor Hardy
- Jack Farthing as Joe
- Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Toni
- Athena Martin as Elena
- Panos Koronis as Vassili
- Alba Rohrwacher as Female Hiker
- Nikos Poursanidis as Male Hiker
- Alexandros Mylonas as Professor Cole
- Konstantinos Samaa as Rough Boy
Production
editMaggie Gyllenhaal acquired the film rights to the Elena Ferrante novel in October 2018, and wrote and directed the adaptation.[9] The lead character, Leda, says that she is named for the woman in the W. B. Yeats poem "Leda and the Swan", which Yeats based on the Leda story of Greek mythology.[10][11]
In February 2020, Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard were cast in the film.[12] In August, Paul Mescal was added,[13] and in October 2020, Oliver Jackson-Cohen was cast as well,[14] with Ed Harris, Dagmara Domińczyk, Jack Farthing and Alba Rohrwacher joining in November.[15]
Principal photography was filmed in Spetses, Greece from 28 September to 31 October 2020.[16][17]
Release
editThe Lost Daughter had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2021.[18] In August 2021, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film in the United States and several other countries,[3][19] adding more markets, including the United Kingdom, in October.[20] The film screened at film festivals in the Telluride,[21][22] Hamptons,[23] London,[24] Lyon Metropolis,[25] Mill Valley,[26] Montclair,[27] New York,[28] San Diego (closing night),[29] Zurich,[30] and Whistler Film Festival.[31] It was released in the United States on December 17, 2021, in a limited release prior to streaming on Netflix on December 31, 2021.[32][33]
Reception
edit
At its opening night world premiere, the movie received a four-minute standing ovation from Venice Film Festival attendees in the Sala Grande.[34]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 232 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A strikingly assured debut for writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter unites a brilliant cast in service of a daringly ambitious story."[35] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on reviews from 51 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[36]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "Still, no matter how flat The Lost Daughter can sometimes seem, there's always something to hold our attention. The movie is never great, but it's never exactly dull. There's always a reason to stick around for the next scene."[37]
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote: "Equal parts troubling and affecting, Leda epitomizes a type of woman whose needs are rarely addressed in American mainstream movies. We can dislike her, but we are never permitted to revile her."[38] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote Gyllenhaal "keeps a close eye on what brings out the best in a scene, and in a story worth telling, with morally imperfect, fully dimensional, persistently human characters."[39]
Alissa Wilkinson of Vox wrote "The movie captures the spirit of the novel well. It's suspenseful, but it's not a thriller; there are elements of obsession and eroticism, but they never quite go where you expect. The end is deeply ambiguous, neither punishing nor condoning its characters' behavior. It simply asks us to sit with them — to pay them the respect of attention, and learn something about ourselves in the process."[40]
Accolades
editReferences
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- ^ "Dickon Hinchliffe Scoring Maggie Gyllenhaal's 'The Lost Daughter'". FilmMusicReporter. August 16, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
- ^ a b Tartaglione, Nancy (August 5, 2021). "Netflix Acquires Maggie Gyllenhaal's Venice-Bound 'The Lost Daughter' In Deal With Endeavor Content". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
- ^ "The Lost Daughter". New York Film Festival. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
- ^ Feinberg, Scott (February 1, 2022). "Oscars: Six Contenders on the Challenges and Rewards of Making 2021 Indies". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
- ^ "The Lost Daughter (2021)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
- ^ a b "Biennale Cinema 2021 | Official awards of the 78th Venice Film Festival". La Biennale di Venezia. September 11, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ Cohn, Gabe (February 8, 2022). "2022 Oscars Nominees List". The New York Times. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
- ^ Maggie Gyllenhaal Acquires ‘The Lost Daughter’ Novel To Make Her Film Directorial Debut
- ^ "Amidon, Aurora. "The Lost Daughter Understands That Womanhood Is Profoundly Complicated". Paste Magazine. December 15, 2021". Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Leda and the Swan poem - accessed 1/5/2022
- ^ ‘The Lost Daughter’: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson & Peter Sarsgaard Set For Maggie Gyllenhaal’s EFM-Bound Directorial Debut
- ^ 'Normal People' Breakout Paul Mescal Joins Maggie Gyllenhaal Directorial Debut 'The Lost Daughter' (Exclusive)
- ^ Romano, Nick (October 5, 2020). "The haunting of Oliver Jackson-Cohen: Inside The Invisible Man and Bly Manor star's year of horrors". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
- ^ Donnelly, Matt (November 10, 2020). "Maggie Gyllenhaal's 'The Lost Daughter' Casts Ed Harris, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and More (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ "Searching for 3-5 year old female child to play ELENA in the Feature Film THE LOST DAUGHTER, to be directed by MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL and produced by TALIA KLEINHENDLER & OSNAT HANDELSMAN KEREN. Shoots in SPETSES, GREECE this Fall! #thelostdaughter #sagaftrafilm #castingby". Instagram. August 17, 2020. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ Zargani, Luisa (September 23, 2020). "Kim Jones, Paul Mescal Attend Fendi Show". WWD. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
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- ^ "Telluride Film Festival Program Guide" (PDF). Telluride Film Festival. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 1, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
- ^ Hammond, Pete (September 1, 2021). "Telluride Film Festival: Will Smith's 'King Richard', Peter Dinklage Musical 'Cyrano', Joaquin Phoenix In 'C'mon C'mon', Ken Branagh's 'Belfast' Set To Premiere". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
- ^ "Hamptons International Film Festival: THE LOST DAUGHTER". Guild Hall. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
- ^ "The Lost Daughter". BFI London Film Festival 2021. Archived from the original on October 22, 2021. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
- ^ "The Lost Daughter". Lumière Film Festival (in French). Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
- ^ "THE LOST DAUGHTER". Mill Valley Film Festival. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
- ^ Kuperinsky, Amy (September 24, 2021). "Montclair Film Fest lineup: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dionne Warwick, Dagmara Dominczyk". NJ.com. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
- ^ Lewis, Hilary (August 19, 2021). "NY Film Festival Adds 'Dune,' 'French Dispatch' to Lineup". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
- ^ "The Lost Daughter (Closing Night Film)". San Diego International Film Festival. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
- ^ The Lost Daughter - Zurich Film Festival (in German), retrieved September 28, 2021
- ^ "THE LOST DAUGHTER". Whistler Film Festival. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
- ^ Canfeld, David (August 18, 2021). "Inside Maggie Gyllenhaal's Radical Directorial Debut, The Lost Daughter". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
- ^ "Maggie Gyllenhaal's 'The Lost Daughter' New Poster With Release Date Announced". MAXBLIZZ. September 29, 2021. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
- ^ Vivarelli, Nick (September 4, 2021). "Maggie Gyllenhaal's 'The Lost Daughter' Gets Warm Ovation in Venice With Jake Gyllenhaal on Hand to Cheer Her Debut". Variety. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ "The Lost Daughter (2021)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
- ^ "The Lost Daughter Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
- ^ LaSalle, Mick (December 9, 2021). "Review: A woman at odds with her own motherhood in 'The Lost Daughter'". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on December 10, 2021.
- ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (December 30, 2021). "'The Lost Daughter' Review: The Parent Trap". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Phillips, Michael (December 31, 2021). "'The Lost Daughter' review: A Greek island vacation holds some secrets in one of the year's best movies, Dec. 31 on Netflix". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Wilkinson, Alissa (January 6, 2022). "Untangling Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter". Vox. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Lattanzio, Ryan (November 30, 2021). "Gotham Awards: 'The Lost Daughter' Wins Top Prize — See the Full List of Winners". IndieWire. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
- ^ Sharf, Zack (October 21, 2021). "Gotham Awards 2021 Nominations: 'Pig,' 'Green Knight,' 'Passing' Compete for Best Feature". IndieWire. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
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- ^ Neglia, Matt (December 20, 2021). "The 2021 Dallas Fort-Worth Film Critics Association (DFWFCA) Winners". Retrieved December 20, 2021.
- ^ Pond, Steve (January 8, 2022). "'Drive My Car' Wins Best Picture Award From National Society of Film Critics". The Wrap. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
- ^ Tangcay, Jazz (December 10, 2021). "'The Power of the Dog, 'Passing' Lead Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award Nominations (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
- ^ Moreau, Jordan (December 13, 2021). "Golden Globes 2022: The Complete Nominations List". Variety. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
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- ^ Neglia, Matt (January 7, 2022). "The 2021 San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) Nominations". NextBigPicture. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
- ^ Neglia, Matt (January 4, 2022). "The 2021 Austin Film Critics Association (AFCA) Nominations". Next Big Picture. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
- ^ Neglia, Matt (January 16, 2022). "The 2021 Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) Winners". Next Big Picture. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
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- ^ Neglia, Matt (January 18, 2022). "The 2021 Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) Nominations". Next Big Picture. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Tangcay, Jazz (January 24, 2022). "Art Directors Guild 2022 Nominations Headed by 'Nightmare Alley,' 'Cruella,' 'No Time to Die,' 'In the Heights'". Variety. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
- ^ Long, Brent; Tangcay, Jazz (December 14, 2021). "Indie Spirit Awards 2022 Nominations (Updating Live)". Variety. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
- ^ Davis, Clayton (January 27, 2022). "DGA Nominations: Jane Campion, Kenneth Branagh and Denis Villeneuve Lead the Directors Field". Variety. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
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- ^ Anderson, Erik (December 1, 2021). "'Belfast,' 'The Power of the Dog' lead 26th Satellite Awards nominations". AwardsWatch. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
External links
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